Entries in Alex Gorsky
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Cristina Arias/Getty Images(NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) -- Johnson & Johnson has chosen a new CEO as it tries to recover from a series of product recalls. Effective April 26, 2012 -- the day of the company's annual shareholder's meeting -- current CEO Bill Weldon will hand the reins over to Alex Gorsky, a Johnson & Johnson veteran.

Sixty-three-year-old Weldon, who has served as CEO of Johnson & Johnson since 2002 and will remain on the company's board of directors as chairman, said the selection process for his successor was thorough.

"This succession decision involved a rigorous, thorough and formal multi-year process, which included consideration of two superbly qualified internal candidates, as well as outside candidates," Weldon said, according to a company statement. He added, "The future of Johnson & Johnson is in very capable hands."

Gorsky first joined Johnson & Johnson as a sales rep for Janssen Pharmaceutica. By 2001, Gorksy had advanced his way to president of Janssen. In 2003, he was promoted to oversee Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa before leaving the company in 2004. Gorsky returned to Johnson & Johnson after four years as head of pharmaceuticals in North America at Novartis. In 2009, Gorsky was appointed as worldwide chairman of the surgical care group as well as the company's executive committee.

Gorsky, 51, has also been nominated for election to the company's board of directors.

Johnson & Johnson generated $65 billion in sales in 2011, according to Bloomberg. Still, the quality of various recalled products from artificial hips to OTC brands such as Tylenol have cost the company more than $1 billion in lost sales, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to Bloomberg, Gorsky will earn $1.2 million as the ninth CEO of the world's second largest health care company.